False Rider
by iSackettEcho
Summary: A tragic friendship befalls a young elf, and a bitter enemy is made, the moment when he touches a dragon hatchling that did not belong to him. Crossposted on SF3.
1. Prologue: Rider

**Story Summary:**

**A tragic friendship befalls a young elf, and a bitter enemy is made, the moment when he touches a dragon hatchling that did not belong to him.**

**Palin, a half crippled youth, struggles to find purpose amid a perfection obsessed elvin society. In the day, he endures the ridicule from his peers for having been born deformed with a clubbed foot, his only kindness received from his sole friend Tamaldin. At night, he dreams of soaring on the wings of his dragon, seeing the sights only a true legendary rider saw.**

**When the dragon eggs are brought to his city, Palin can hardly contain his excitement. He races to his city's grand hall on wobbly legs with his friend Tamaldin at his side. To his great misfortune, his excitement overcomes him as an egg hatches… and he touches a hatchling dragon meant for Tamaldin. An unbreakable bond is formed between the dragon and Palin, the false rider.**

_**Would I be punished for this, my grave mistake? Would I suffer all of my long days?**_

**Story Notes:**

**My Idea for this fanfic came from a Q&A session with the author Christopher Paolini:**

**Q: If a dragon hatches for a person, what happens if someone else touches it before that person?  
>CP: Complications.<strong>

Prologue: Rider

_False__Rider._ The accusation reverberated painfully through my head. The voice threatened to shatter my thoughts to dust. _Fallacious,__deceptive,__deceiving,__traitorous,__forged,__counterfeit__rider!_

_Well,__at__least__my__dragon__has__a__talent__with__the__vernacular_, I thought, briefly feeling smug through the overwhelming fear encircling my frail heart.

_I__'__m__not__your__dragon,__evil__swindler!_ The words fell like stars across my mind, momentarily searing my inner sight, blinding my inner thought.

_Abomination_, another voice joined. His voice sent boulders toppling down upon my mind. For a moment, I was lost without a name, crushed beneath the unyielding weight of a mountain.

_Cheat._ Her voice was smooth as a snake's slither, and twice as deadly as its bite. My heart beat sluggishly beneath the venom dripping from her voice.

_What__is__this__rider?_ a voice like thunder demanded. The sound nearly split my mind apart into two. I was on my way to meet my end, my doom, soon.

_False__Rider!_ my dragon shouted again, and was joined by a multitude of others, roaring, whispering, shouting, hissing, breathing fire – all the speeches I never thought a dragon would speak to me.

The echoes in my head swirled and swam across the farthest reaches and corners of my mind. I would come undone at the fragile seams in my mind. I would drown in a sea of angry voices. I would die by the thousand thoughts of a murderous mob. Bright lights and splotches of color swirled like a cunning vortex conniving to swallow me whole. I was lost and afloat in a sea of fire.

Would I be punished more than this for my grave mistake? Would I suffer all my long days?

The questions left me shuddering with fear and trepidation.


	2. Prologue: Dragon

Prologue: Dragon

I shuddered with delight, quivering with excitement in my soft shell. My rider had touched my egg. Lightning shimmered across my conscious. _Finally._ This was it. It was time – the time I had hoped for even as I slumbered for decades, always waiting.

I stretched my tightly hurled claws, opening my jaws, loosing my sharp teeth. I waded through the gooey soft plasma where I had swum in my slumber. I struggled and reached for the hard edges of my world. I scratched and snarled with my effort. I snorted and fumbled and tore at the hard outer core with my formidable teeth. I threw my mighty body and butted my spiked head against the purple walls.

Finally, the shell walls shuddered, and my world broke away. I chortled and ripped through the shell, bursting forth out of the purple recess, out for my purple abyss. I broke away and crawled out into a whole new world.

The feel of the new world under my claws as it curled away under me, the acute assault of putrid and sweet smells of my new home, the thundering and murmuring sounds of this foreign place – all of it overwhelmed me in its newness and intensity. And I loved it all – all before ever even opening my eyes!

Slowly, sluggish from first use, I opened my eyes. I winced. The light was blinding, and for a moment, I could see nothing of my new place in the world. I blinked away the plasma from my eyes, clearing my vision for my first fateful glimpse of my rider.

I wanted to sing, chortle a song, roar with praise when I saw my rider's face. He was a strange, odd looking creature, but in an inexplicably magical way, I knew instantly that it was him. The magic placed on me long ago urged me to reach for him, touch him, and make the bond. I moved towards his blue eyes, towards his funny pale hand extending towards me. I flapped my wings and surged forward.

Then, suddenly, a different hand – one a darker olive than the pale tan of my rider – fluttered before my eyes and touched my nose. I saw a purple flash and felt the magic flow out of me and into him as a bond was made.

_No!_ I screamed in horror, the words I needed coming to me instantly from the young rider's mind. I roared with all my might, flapping my leathery wings in anger. _False__Rider!_

A bond was made that could not be made undone – a bond with the wrong rider.

Horror turned my stomach, revulsion clouded my judgment, anger consumed my conscious. I pounced on his mind, trying to smother it in the richness of my own. I plucked words from his surprisingly intelligent mind, throwing them at him, berating him in my rage.

I felt humor in the young rider at my splendid use of vocabulary. _I__'__m__not__your__dragon,__evil__swindler!_ I shouted, hopelessly trying to force him to understand his grave sin.

Others joined in with my protest, voices ancient and older than mine own, rumbling and growling with a fierce vengeance I had not yet experienced.

_False__Rider!_ I accused as my voice was drowned in the others. I wailed in misery.

Was this it? Was this all I had received for the hope I'd held for so long in my heart? What had I ever done, encased and entombed in my purple shell, to be doomed to such a miserable fate?


End file.
